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Grading Parents

Is it just me or is it impossible for a woman to spoof a politician without coming across as a Hillary Clinton/Sarah Palin hybrid?

Though I’m spoofing the format of political news conferences in this video, I actually wanted to say, “I hear you” to the legislation that prompted this piece. I noticed, in a couple of places online, writers were deriding a certain piece of legislation that proposed to grade parents.

I am betting we all know some who would get a thumbs down.

Also, for some reason, teachers have become enemy number one — like they caused the financial meltdown, sold speculative investments and started two foreign wars. Oh, yes, those wiley teachers with their $40,000-a-year salary and need for Sharpies. They are so terrible. Geez.

4 thoughts on “Grading Parents”

Interesting concept, but I don’t think it would work as teachers would hope. Like someone said, parents who don’t feed their kids properly, or get them to sleep or to school on time, are unlikely to be phased by an unsatisfactory review.

Some parents are simply hands-off in childrearing, others create a chaotic and unstable home environment which is then acted out in the classroom. At worst, a negative judgment on the parents would be taken out on the child.

Those of us who are meeting our responsibilities would benefit from more praise, it might make some of the tedium and labor of parenting seem worthwhile. I know I have times when I have to motivate myself to stay on the treadmill, when it’s hard to believe all of my efforts are actually going to produce the happy, secure individuals I’m aiming for.

To hear the principal or a teacher say that my child stands out as a positive influence in the classroom feeds my ego for a very long time. I worry along with the rest of them about what goes on inside the homes of many of my children’s peers. It’s so sad that all children can’t be celebrated and cherished by their parents during such crucial growing-up years.

As a teacher from Florida, I think that the bill was drafted as a retaliation to all the bills that our Senate has been trying to pass that base teacher pay on performance of students on the FCAT test. Really, we all know who should be getting graded here; not the parents, not the teachers, but the KIDS. The ones who either do or do not do their assignments and pass the FCAT test.